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The channel was originally launched in 2005 as Sky Three. It was essentially a "shop window" service for Sky's main entertainment channel Sky 1 and its other subscription services, which served to "offer digital terrestrial viewers the opportunity to enjoy a wide variety of popular programmes from Sky".[2] From its launch on 1 November 2005 until 24 June 2010, the channel carried Sky Travel's commercial presentations selling holiday deals for a number of providers.

In recent years[when?], the number of well known Sky 1 shows being shown on Pick TV has declined. The channel is well known for airing repeats of Road Wars and Airline whilst other shows such as Coach Trip and It's Me or the Dog are also shown regularly, the closure of Sky Real Lives responsible for the increase in lifestyle programming. The number of American shows airing on the channel has declined rapidly[citation needed], with Prison Break the last major U.S. Sky 1 drama to be shown on the channel in 2010. Since its rebrand to Pick TV, recent Sky 1 shows such as UK Border Force, Pineapple Dance Studios and documentary series hosted by Ross Kemp such as gangs and in search of Pirates were aired.

On 1 February 2011, Sky Atlantic launched on Sky channel 108, which had originally been occupied by Sky3.[3] Sky rebranded Sky3 as Pick TV on 28 February 2011.[4][5] On Monday 7 October 2013, Pick TV became Pick introducing a new look and logo for the channel.

In May 2012, Pick TV started broadcasting some older Sky 1 and Sky Living, and the former Virgin1 and Bravo shows. The following programmes are currently airing on the channel, with the producer listed if the programme doesn't originate from the Sky programme archives:

Sky Three was the first free-to-air general entertainment channel from Sky. It launched on 1 November 2005, replacing the Sky Travel's EPG slot on Freeview in a bid to attract more subscribers to Sky's satellite service. Due to its wider availability on Freeview channel 11, the channel constantly had higher ratings than Sky 2 where Sky3 was achieving on average a 1% share compared to Sky 2's 0.1-3% share. Instead of Sky selling on the terrestrial free-to-air rights for their programmes to another broadcaster, these rights are usually retained to remain exclusive to Sky. In 2008, Sky's entertainment channels changed the wording in the logos to numbers, hence Sky Three became Sky3.

On 23 August 2010, Sky Sports News became a pay-TV channel, which was replaced on Freeview by a one-hour timeshift version of Sky3.[6] Sky3 +1 also launched on Sky channel 223 on the same day. A final rebrand took place in early 2011 and saw Sky 1, 2 and 3 gain similar rectangular logos to Sky News and Sky Sports.

The channel was rebranded as Pick TV (and Pick TV +1) on 28 February 2011. Only the name was changed, as the channel retained the look of the most recent rebrand which occurred a few weeks earlier. The launch of Challenge saw quiz and gameshow type programming move off Pick TV. On 20 September 2011 at 14:00, Pick TV +1 was removed from Freeview.[7] This was so that all of the channels owned by BSkyB could be on multiplex C and Challenge could broadcast for 24 hours a day in Wales on the platform, in-line with the rest of the UK.

On 7 October 2013, Pick TV was rebranded as Pick on Freeview and all platforms.

On the weekend of 18–20 September 2009, the channel showed a selection of programmes normally only available to paying Sky subscribers instead of the channel's usual schedule as a "taster" of what is available on the subscription-based Sky to viewers of Freeview, TalkTalk TV, and Freesat from Sky. Channels not available to Freeview and Freesat from Sky viewers, such as sister network Sky 1, Cartoon Network, Nickelodeon, Disney Channel, sister network Sky Living, ESPN and MTV contributed programming to the weekend. Sky showed a second Free Weekend Pass event on 17–18 April 2010 and a third and final event between 11–13 February 2011. The event has not been repeated since Sky3 rebranded as Pick TV.

Pick TV showcased some of Sky's premium entertainment content once a week from 24 January 2013 for 12 weeks. 'Sky Thursdays' was a branded segment that offered selected episodes of some of Sky's most popular programmes, usually only available on its pay TV channels.

Sky Thursdays kicked off on 24 January with the first episode of comedy series Modern Family at 7pm. Sky's recent documentary on cyclist Bradley Wiggins was shown at 7:30pm. America's answer to Sherlock, Elementary followed at 9pm and the evening ended with the first episode of Sky Atlantic's Game of Thrones at 10pm.

During subsequent weeks, selected episodes of shows like Boardwalk Empire, An Idiot Abroad, Michael Parkinson's Masterclass and Mad Dogs were shown. Excluding An Idiot Abroad, there is no indication that the full set of episodes for any of these programmes will air on Pick TV.

A 60 second bespoke news bulletin from Sky News was introduced on 26 November 2012 and is broadcast nightly at 21:00. The first hour of Sunrise is also simulcast on Pick on weekdays from 06:00 to 07:00.